Worldly Pleasures: A Look Back at a Big Year

January 2013By David Brown, Explorer Correspondent

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

The year got off to a solid start when a Statoil-led group announced a second giant oil and gas discovery in the Barents Sea off Norway at Havis, close to the group’s 2011 Skrugard discovery. Photo courtesy of Harald Pettersen / Statoil

Some highlights from international activity in 2012:

January

A Statoil-led group announced a second giant oil and gas discovery in the Barents Sea off Norway at Havis, close to the group’s 2011 Skrugard discovery on the same license.

February

♦ In the Llanos Basin in Colombia, Tecpetrol Colombia reported an oil discovery in the first of a nine-well program on the CPO-6, CPO-7, and CPO-13 blocks. NCT Energy Group Colombia hit an oil find with the Mani-1 well on Llanos 27 block.

♦ Cobalt International Energy said its Cameia presalt oil discovery in Block 21 offshore Angola flowed at an unstimulated, sustained rate of 5,010 barrels per day.

♦ Domino-1, a deepwater wildcat in the western Black Sea offshore Romania, turned up 1.5-3.0 Tcf of potential gas accumulation on a block held by ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Romania and OMV Petrom.

♦ Statoil called its Zafarani discovery in Block 2 offshore Tanzania a “high impact discovery” with as much as 5 Tcf of gas in place. ExxonMobil is a partner in the well.

♦ In the Levant Basin of the Eastern Mediterranean, Noble Energy chalked up a sixth consecutive field discovery with its Tanin find, bringing total discovered (gross) mean resources to approximately 35 Tcf.

March

♦ Offshore Nigeria, Afren and Amni International Petroleum Development of Nigeria tested a light oil discovery on OML 112. Afren also said future horizontal wells at its Okoro East oil discovery, offshore southeast Nigeria, should yield 4,500-7,000 barrels of oil per day per well.

♦ OMV completed the K-30 exploratory well on the Kadanwari block in the Middle Indus basin in Pakistan, which tested at 52 million standard cubic feet per day on choke, said interest holder Premier Oil.

♦ In the North Celtic Sea Basin, the 48/24-10z Barryroe appraisal was stable at 3,514 b/d of oil from the Lower Cretaceous basal Wealden sand at 7,400 feet, with 2.93 million cubic feet/day of gas. Providence Resources PLC, Dublin, called it the first commercial oil offshore Ireland.

♦ The Mamba Northeast-1 exploratory well offshore Mozambique lifts the resource base of Offshore Area 4 by at least 10 Tcf, an ENI-led group announced.

April

♦ Drilling in Cluster 6 of the Southwest Soldado field onshore Trinidad has confirmed a minimum of 48 million barrels of oil, Petrotrin reported.

♦ CESPA and Gran Tierra Energy, Calgary, tested oil from Mirador at a restricted rate of 2,525 barrels per day at the Ramiriqui-1 discovery well in the Llanos basin in Colombia.

♦ In a Santos Basin discovery, Petrobras said a Lula field well found good-quality oil in presalt carbonate reservoirs below at about 18,500 feet.

♦ Eni said an Anadarko Petroleum-operated sidetrack of the Heidelberg appraisal well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico confirmed oil pay, found an oil-water contact, and greatly increased the field’s known areal extent.

♦ Oil & Natural Gas Corp. reported four discoveries in India, including oil finds from the Phulani-1 exploration well in the Assam and Assam Arakan Basin and the Koravaka-1 in the onshore Krishna-Godavari Basin. New pool discoveries were the North Kovilkalappal-3 in the onshore Cauvery Basin and C-39-14 in the Western Offshore Basin.

May

♦ Onshore Kenya, Tullow Oil's Ngamia-1 well found more than 328 feet of oil pay over a gross oil-bearing interval of 2,130 feet in multiple zones.

♦ Anadarko Petroleum added seven to 20-plus Tcf of recoverable gas offshore Mozambique at an exploration strike about 20 miles northwest of its Prosperidade complex.

♦ BG Group reported a fifth gas discovery offshore Tanzania with the Mzia-1 exploratory well on Block 1 – a first success in the deeper Cretaceous section.

♦ Agiba, a joint operating company, operated the Emry Deep 1X well about 180 miles southwest of Alexandria in Egypt, which found 250 feet of net pay in multiple sandstones of the Lower Cretaceous Alam El Bueib Formation and flowed 3,500 barrels/day during testing.

♦ CNOOC said its Luda 21-2 oil discovery in southern Liaodong Bay tested at 608 barrels/day from the “thickest oil layers found in the exploration of Bohai clastic rocks in recent years.”

♦ Offshore Mozambique, an Anadarko Petroleum partnership hit more than 300 net feet of natural gas pay in two high-quality Oligocene fan systems with the Atum discovery well in Offshore Area 1 in the Rovuma basin.

♦ The Papa-1 deepwater wildcat on Block 3 offshore Tanzania became the first Cretaceous gas discovery outboard of the Rufiji Delta, according to partners Ophir Energy and BG.

♦ Petrobras claimed a deepwater oil discovery in the Ceara Basin offshore northeastern Brazil with the Pecem/1-BRSA-1080-CES well. It found oil in siliciclastics of the Cretaceous Paracuru formation and drilling was extended 18,000 feet. BP Energy do Brasil is a 40 percent partner in the concession.

♦ Petrobras and partners announced their Carcara discovery well encountered more than 1,300 feet of continuous oil pay on the BM-S-8 block in the Santos basin offshore Brazil.

♦ Following up on Luda 21-2, CNOOC reported more oil discoveries offshore China. The Luda 6-2-4 and Luda 6-2-5 wells in the Liaodong Bay extension of Bohai Gulf tested at an average rate of 850 barrels/day, CNOOC said. In the Pearl River Mouth Basin, Lufeng 15-1-2 tested at about 800 b/d.

♦ Pemex made its first oil discovery in Mexican deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico with its Trion-1 well in the Perdido area. It planned to deepen the 16,115-foot well to evaluate the Paleocene Wilcox.

♦ San Leon Energy announced an oil discovery with the Lelechow-SL1 well in southwestern Poland. Core and logs indicated the Zechstein Main dolomite was highly fractured and oil-bearing.

September

The Atrush-2 appraisal well in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq tested at the combined rate of 42,212 barrels of oil per day in drillstem tests in three formations for a group led by General Exploration partners.

October

♦ Pemex expected to book new 3P oil reserves of up to 125 million barrels from its Supremo discovery in 9,500 feet of water, officials said. Supremo is about 130 miles south of the maritime U.S. border.

November

♦ Bengal Energy announced that its Tookoonooka drilling campaign found oil with Caracal-1 in ATP731 on the southeast flank of the Cooper Basin, Australia. Caracal-1 closure was estimated to cover an area of 5.5 square miles.

♦ Tullow Oil said Twiga South-1 in Block 13T, onshore Kenya, found 98 feet of net oil pay with further potential to be assessed.

♦ The Pemex Navegante 1 well onshore Mexico in the southern state of Tabasco appeared to hold a potential 500 million barrels of light crude, officials said.

♦ Noble Energy announced a deepwater Gulf of Mexico discovery at the Big Bend prospect. The 15,989-foot well, in 7,200 feet of water on Mississippi Canyon Block 698, was drilled to a total depth of 15,989 feet. Open-hole logging showed about 150 feet of net oil pay in two high-quality Miocene reservoirs.

♦ Petronas noted that two offshore Sarawak gas discoveries, at the Kuang North and Tukau Timar fields, could contain combined reserves of more than four Tcf. The Tukau Timur Deep-1 well was drilled to 15,847 feet and found 12 gas-bearing reservoirs with total net gas sand of 600 feet.

December

♦ Wintershall's F17-10 well found oil in a Late Cretaceous Chalk reservoir in exploration license F17a in the Dutch North Sea about 75 miles north of Den Helder. The well went to TD of 4,889 feet into the top of a salt dome.

♦ Total reported a significant oil discovery at the North Platte prospect on Garden Banks Block 959 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The 34,500-foot well is the first Lower Tertiary Wilcox well drilled by a Total-Cobalt International alliance.

♦ The Mamba South 2 and Coral 2 delineation wells in Area 4, Mozambique, added about six Tcf potential in the Mamba complex for ENI and partners.

♦ Petrobras discovered light oil with the Muriu well drilled off Sergipe state in northern Brazil, a fourth discovery in the ultra-deep waters of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin in 2012.

♦ ENI said the Badhra B North-1 exploratory well made a significant gas discovery in the Khirtar Fold Belt region onshore Pakistan. The well found 177 feet of net gas pay in two thick Cretaceous sandstones of the Mughal Kot Formation.